On “the young voters” thing: the designation should be “The Godot Vote” because they never show up.

It’s been that way was since I was that Young Voter. The 26th amendment had just passed, and we were gonna turn the tide and send Nixon packing. Didn’t work for shit back then – hasn’t worked any better since.

Because youthful passion and energy are no match for a veteran’s experience and treachery.

Re: Chez’s point about why centrist Democrats win… I don’t really think there’s that much of a “middle” on the one-dimensional left-right spectrum. I live in Seattle, I’d be surprised if too many people in my neighborhood didn’t vote for Stein or Clinton, and yet people freaked the FUCK out about a possible homeless camp using language that would raise eyebrows even coming from a hardcore asshole like Jeff Sessions.

So it’s more that centrist Democrats win by toeing a soft-on-the-propertied-class, permissive civil rights policy. Not that the Left isn’t fucking nuts a lot of the time, but I understand why they’d be mad and using “(neo)liberal” as a snarl word.

muselet

If his history as a prosecutor is any guide, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will be something of a disaster. Certainly the NAACP Legal Defense Fund thinks so.

Bob, Sessions was nominated for a federal District judgeship in, I think it was, 1986. He swore up and down he wasn’t racist and hadn’t said all the awful, racist things people said they had heard him say, and at the end of the day even Rs couldn’t bring themselves to confirm him. He’s spent the years since in the Senate, proving he didn’t deserve confirmation by being an utter bigoted arsehole. And now he’s going to become Attorney General.

Not buying it, Bob. Bernie Sanders would never have won. Full stop. He’d have been buried under hours of negative ads about his being a SOCIALIST! and our glorious news media would never have taken him or his positions seriously. Trump really would have won by a landslide against someone as easily-caricatured and as unused to being hammered by an opponent as Sanders.

Meryl Streep made an impassioned plea for empathy and decency. No wonder Trump blew a gasket.

Trump has surrounded himself with cranks, mountebanks and bigots, and clearly sees his role as that of a board chairman, the public face of the madness his chosen team will unleash upon the world. How will he govern? He won’t. He would have no intention of governing even if he gave a monkey’s about that. He’s gearing up to run a plunderbund and has no time for trifles like governing when there’s loot to be scooped up.

Hack-Fraud Chuck C Johnson is working with the Trump transition team. Should have anticipated that, I suppose, but holy crap.

This. Is. Not. Normal.

Paul Ryan is delusional. The Rs can’t agree on an executive summary of a précis of an outline of a plan to replace the ACA—beyond “not Obamacare,” that is—after seven years of promising a Republican alternative was right around the corner. That’s not going to change in the next couple of weeks.

If the Rs screw around, they will disrupt the insurance market to such a degree that the industry might not only eliminate individual policies, it might get out of health insurance altogether (I don’t think it’ll go that far, but I’m not prepared to make any wagers). You want to see how long and hot The Greatest Healthcare System In The World! can burn, just wait around.

Mark Hamill has long struck me as something of a mensch. Now I’m sure of it.

That was one hell of a letter you got, Bob. Thank you for sharing it. I know I’ve said this too many times, but cancer sucks.

–alopecia

Badgerite

I don’t think Bernie would have won either. But you cannot really rule it out. He might have had the teflon element. At least initially, the press would have probably laid off him. Big story. Horse race. etc. Initially, at least. Who knows. Nonetheless I think that the Democratic party must be the natural home of those who supported his positions and him. So, time to invite them in. Everyone but Weaver. And Cornell West. And Susan Sarandon. And a few others. And they need to drop the BS that they was somehow “robbed” of the nomination. They simply had people running the campaign ( Weaver) who did stupid shit like fail to know or publicize to their supporters the laws of the states with respect to the primaries that they were expected to vote in.
And then cry about it afterwards when the tallies were already in. That was their low point, in my opinion.

ProudLiberalAlways

I don’t worry about how Rump will behave in an international crisis—–I’m terrified he’ll cause one! Or two or more! There is a big problem with having elected a wild card. All someone has to do is insult him, and ka-boom!!!

ProudLiberalAlways

Jeff Sessions=Keebler Elf. Only a malignant one.

Don P

A Keebler Elf who just happens to be handy with a rope and know just which tree branch is the right height and is strong enough to support a man’s weight.